Sliding door seal for refrigerating apparatus



March 2, 1937. GOETZMVANN 7 2,072,300

SLIDING DOOR SEAL FOR REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Fi ld Nov. 25, 1935, 2Sheets-Sheet 1 ro M m IN VEN 'OR ALBERT .Goz-rz ANN ATTOHNELi March 2,1937. A. LJ GOETZMANN 2,072,300

SLIDING DOOR SEAL FOR REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 25. 1 935 2Sheets-Sheet 2 1 IN VENTOR ALBERT L. GOETZMANN Wm M W ATTORNEYfiPatented Mar. 2,. 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SLIDING DOOR SEAL FORREFRIGERATING APPARATUS Albert L. Goetzmann, Minneapolis, Minn, assignorto Puffer-Hubbard Mfg. Co., Minne- Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in means for sealing the slidingdoors of refrigerating apparatus, particularly refrigerator show cases,and has for its principal object to provide 5" for assembly anddisassembly of the doors without the use of tools, and to provide meanswhich will unfailingly maintain a sealed relation of the tops of thedoors with their guides.

Features of the invention sealing purposes; the use and arrangement ofsuch material to facilitate assembly and disas sembly of the doorswithout the use of tools; specifically the use of sponge rubber; the useof sponge rubber with a permanent facing engageable with the door tofacilitate sliding and maintaining a seal; andall details ofconstruction shown, along with the broader ideas of means inherent inthe disclosure. Objects, features and advantages of the invention willbe set forth in the description of the drawings forming, apart of thisapplication, and insaid drawings Figure 1 is a front view showing thedoors positioned as immediately before or after assembly;

Figure 2 is a secti n on line 2--2 of Figure ,1 with the doors removedshowing the positions of the sealing strips; and Figure 3 is a verticalsection on line 3-3 of Figure 1,.i1lustrating the mode of assembly.

Numeral l indicatesta frame which is part of a refrigeratorshow case orother refrigerating structure in association with which this inventionis applied. The refrigerator show case has not been shown, but it is tobe understood that the frame l is properly connected with the otherelements of the case and this frame may be considered to be the case.'It will be further understood that the main advantage of thepresentinvention is its ability to provide a seal at the top of the slidingdoors of such a case, and, insofar asI am aware, no one h-asprovided agood seal of a nature allowing easy and quick assembly or disassembly ofthe doors without theuse of tools. Numeral 2 indicates sections of aliner, the remaining sections of which are indicated by numeral 3. Thissection-a1 liner is composed of composition rubber and is easilyassembled, by first 5 placing the end or upright section 3 in place, andthen placing upper and lower sections 2. The liner sections aresecuredby screws, not shown. The liner or. frame provides on its upperand lower surfaces, guide ribs with which channels of the 55 doors areassociated. For the outer door, there include: the use of 10 resilienthighly; compressible material for the are upper and lower guide ribs 4and 5, and for the inner door there are upper and lower guide ribs 6 andl. The roller-supported outer door 8 has at its top a groove H]registered with the rib 4, as best shown in Figure 3, and the lower sur-5 face of the door has a groove ll related to the guide rib 5, as shown.The roller-supported inner door 9 has at the top a guide groove l2associated with the rib 6 and at the bottom a guide groove l3 associatedwith the rib I. 10

The ribs 4 and 6 are so spaced as to form a channel therebetween, and.in this channel are arranged three strips of resilient compressiblematerial preferably sponge rubber. Whatever material is used, it shouldbe highly compressible 15 and resilient. The strips aresecured bycement, not shown. The cement-receiving surface of each strip issuitably treated to prevent absorption of the cement by the spongerubber. This structure has not been shown.

Each strip is faced with a fabric tape ll which is vulcanized thereto,and the tape provides means allowing the doors to slide easily, whilethe rubber is under compression and acting with expansive force tomaintain a seal. Figure 3 is a central section through the frame andtherefore all the rubber strips are shown. Their relation is also shownclearly in Figure 2, and it will be noted that there is a short strip toarranged between the others and at the longitudinal middle of thegroove. This strip is of a length about equal to the length of overlapof the doors when they are in normally closed position.

Referring to Figure 1: The doors are shown in the position that theyassume either just before assembly or preparatory to disassembly. Afterassembly and when the device is in use and the doors are in their normalor closed positions, the door 8 is at the extreme left instead of at theright, and the door 9 is at the extreme right instead of at the left ofthe figure.

Assembly operation In assembling, the inner door 9 is placed at the leftend of the frame or case I, as in Figure 1, and its upper groove I2 isthen engaged over the inner upper rib 6, as shown in dot-and-dash linesin Figure 3. The door is then forced upwardly to compress the rubberelements l5 and I6, sufficiently to permit the lower end of the door tobe swung inwardly and to clear both lower guide ribs 5 and l, and bringthe bottom groove l3 in opposition to inner bottom rib 1, after whichthe door is released to assume the operative relation shown in thefigure, the rubber elements 15 and 55 l6 expanding, but remaining undercompression to maintain yieldable friction contact with the outerportion of the upper surface of the door 9, as shown in full lines inFigure 3.

The outer door 8 is assembled in the same manner at the right side ofthe frame. Its upper roove I0 is caused to assume that relation withupper rib 4 and with the compressible elements l4 and I 6, as shown indotand-dash lines of Figure 3, whereafter it is swung inwardly to thefull line position of this figure to cause the groove II to registerwith the rib 5 after which itis released to assume the operativerelation shown. In this case, it is only necessary that the bottom of.the outer door 8 clear the front bottom rib 5 to arrive at the properposition. The rubber expands as in the first case, but remains undercompression to maintain yielding frictional contact with the uppersurface of the upper rail of the outer door 8. The outer or front dooris now slid from its right-hand position of Figure i to an extremeleft-hand position, and the inner or rear door 9 is slid from itsleft-hand position to an extreme right-hand position. In these normalclosed positions of the doors, the strip M is pressing against the topof door 8 through its length and the strip i5 is similarly pressingagainst the door 9. The short strip I6 is pressing against the innerportions of both doors. The doors, as shown in Figure 1, may beconsidered to be positioned either as immediately after assembly andbefore being slid from one substantially extreme position to theopposite extreme or normal closed position, or as just beforedisassembly and after having been slid from their normal extremeposition to substantially the opposite limits.

It is noted that when the doors are in the assembly or disassemblypositions, shown in Figure 1, only a small portion of the end of eachdoor is engaged with two of the strips, and, therefore, compression ofthe strips, as a preliminary to assembly or disassembly, is facilitated.After assembly and when the door is slid to its normal sealing position,the strip I l, for example, engages along the entire upper surface ofthe outer door 8, and the strip l5 engages in the same way with theupper surface of the inner door 9.

Each door is made interchangeable and each is provided in each verticalend face with a groove 23, see Figure 1, which may engage with acorresponding vertical rib 22, see Figure 2, when the doors are closed,and the door 9 is provided with a similar groove, not shown, which mayengage with the vertical rib 24, see Figure 2. In this instance, the rib22 is at the left side of the frame and the rib 24 is at the right. Ofcourse, there is no intention to limit the invention by thesestatements.

Each door has in the outer face of each vertical end portion, afinger-receiving depression 20, by which the door is operated.

I claim as my invention:

1. A sliding door structure for refrigerating apparatus including, adoor, a frame having means for guiding the door, and resilient highlycompressible material interposed and compressed between the frame anddoor and serving as sealing means, said door-guiding means, frame andcompressible material being so related that said door can be moved tofurther compress said resilient material suificiently to allow the doorto be released from its guiding means and swung free of said guidingmeans and frame while the resilient material is under compression, whilesaid guiding means remains immovable in the original guiding position.

2. A sliding door structure for refrigerating apparatus including, asliding door, a frame having upper and lower means for guiding the door,a strip of resilient highly compressible material interposed andcompressed between the frame and upper surface of the door and servingas sealing means, said door-guiding means, frame and compressiblematerial being so related that the door can be moved to further compresssaid resilient material sufficiently to allow the door to be releasedfrom its guiding means, and allow its lower end to be swung free of saidguiding means and frame While the resilient material is undercompression, while said guiding means remains immovable in the originalguiding position.

3. A sliding door structure for refrigerating apparatus including, apair of sliding doors overlappingly arranged, a frame having upper andlower means for guiding the doors, and strips of resilient highlycompressible material interposed and compressed between the frame andupper surfaces of the doors and contacting those surfaces and serving assealing means, said doorguiding means, frame and compressible materialbeing so related that after the doors are moved from their normal closedposition to their extreme opposite limits the said doors can be raisedto further compress said resilent material sufficiently to allow eachdoor to be released from its lower guiding means, and allow its lowerend to be swung free of the lower guiding means and of said frame whilethe resilient material is under compression, while said guiding meansremains immovable in the original guiding position.

4. A sliding door structure for refrigerating apparatus including, apair of sliding doors overlappingly arranged, a frame having upper andlower means for guiding the doors, strips of resilient highlycompressible material interposed and compressed between the uppersurface of each door and the frame, one strip being provided for eachdoor and said strips respectively extending from opposite ends of theframe to a point not far beyond the middle of the frame and a thirdshort strip disposed at the middle of the frame between the otherstrips, the door-guiding means and compressible material being sorelated that said resilient material can be further compressed to allowsufficient raising of each door to release it from its lower guidingmeans to permit its lower end to be swung free of the lower guidingmeans and frame, while the resilient elements are under compression.

5. A sliding door structure for refrigerating apparatus including, apair of sliding doors overlappingly arranged, a frame having upper andlower means for guiding the doors, strips of resilent highlycompressible material interposed and compressed between the uppersurface of each door and the frame, one strip being provided for eachdoor and said strips respectively extending from opposite ends of theframe to a point not far beyond the middle of the frame and a thirdshort strip disposed at the middle of the frame between the other stripsand of a length substantially corresponding to the length of overlap ofthe doors when in closed position, the doors, guiding means andcompressible material being so related that said resilient material canbe further compressed to allow sufiicient raising of each door torelease it from its lower guiding means to permit its lower end to beswung free of the lower guiding means and frame, while the resilientelements are under compression.

6. A sliding door structure for arefrigerating apparatus including asliding door and plural guiding means therefor and compressibleresilient means with which one side of the door slidably engages andwhich is normally compressed by the door, the guiding means and thecompressible means being so arranged and proportioned that the oppositeguided side of the door can be detached from the guiding means when thedoor is moved to additionally compress said compressible means, Whilesaid guiding means remains immovable in the original guiding position.

7. A sliding door structure for a refrigerating apparatus including twooverlapped sliding doors and plural guiding means for each door, andcompressible resilient means for each door with which the top of thedoor slidably engages and. which is normally compressed by the door, theguiding means and compressible means being so arranged and proportionedthat the lower part of the door can be detached from one guiding meanswhen the door is moved to additionally compress said compressible meanswhile said guiding means remains immovable in the original guidingposition.

8. A sliding door structure for a refrigerating apparatus including apair of overlapped, sliding doors and opposed guiding means for eachdoor, resilient compressible material for each door associated with oneof its guiding means and against which the door slides, and which isnormally under compression by the door, said doorguiding means and saidcompressible material being so releated that the door can furthercompress the resilient material sufiiciently to allow the door to bereleased from the other guiding means and swung free thereof while theresilient material is under compression so that the door can then beentirely removed, while said guiding means remains immovable in theoriginal guiding position.

9. A sliding door structure for a refrigerating apparatus including, apair of overlapped sliding doors and permanently stationary upper andlower guiding means for each door, resilient compressible material foreach door against which the door slides and which is normally undercompression by the door, to hold the door against 'one of its guidingmeans, said permanent doorguiding means and said compressible materialbeing so related that the door can further compress the resilientmaterial sufiiciently to allow the door to be released from the otherpermanent guiding means and swung free thereof while the resilientmaterial is under compression, so that the door can then be entirelyremoved, while said guiding means remains immovable in the originalguiding position.

10. A sliding closure structure including two overlapped slidingelements and upper and lower guides for each element, each guideincluding a groove, and compressible resilient means arranged in eachupper groove and with which the slidable element engages and which isnormally compressed by the element, the guides, said compressible meansand said element being so arranged and proportioned that the element canbe raised to additionally compress said compressible means and permitits lower part to be swung free from the guide, while said guides remainimmovable in the original guiding position.

ALBERT L. GOETZMANN.

